Featured Database Articles

How Safe is Cloud Storage?

By Rob Gravelle

As more and more companies look to the cloud for their data storage needs, the same questions are being asked over and over again: if a security breech were to occur, who would be responsible and how much of a guarantee could the provider give us that our data would be safe from prying eyes. With hacking and theft incidents on the rise, it’s time to take a step back and re-evaluate our risk tolerance.

Risks vs. Rewards

As tempting as the many benefits of cloud computing may sound, one must consider all of the potential risks that come along with them. The one at the forefront of the industry’s collection consciousness right now is cybertheft. What happens to personal information that is stolen, such as credit or debit card account details, or social security numbers?

Almost as prevalent as cyber attacks, security breaches from the inside are steadily garnering more and more headlines as well. Once an incident has occurred, in its aftermath, lawsuits are inevitably filed by or against you. At that point you’ve not only lost data as well as your customers’ trust, but now your finances are going to be hit hard.

Conclusion

Information security, whether within your own organization or in the Cloud, has always been about finding a balance between ease of access and information sharing versus data that is completely locked down and virtually inaccessible to anyone. It’s become painfully apparent that the more you have of one, the less you have of the other.